Netroots Nation Embraces "Clean Coal" Enthusiast

It's no secret that the blogosphere has become a force to reckoned with. A national liberal politician can be made or destroyed with the help of this band of reporters and professional commentators. Netroots Nation (formerly the YearlyKos Convention) has become the Mecca for this ever-expanding online community. But to the dismay of some enviros, this summer's conference has invited clean coal advocate Governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana to deliver its opening keynote address.

On its website, Netroots Nation credits Schweitzer for electrifying the crowd at the 2008 Democratic National Convention by "calling for a new clean energy future." But many clean coal methods Schweitzer supports are neither new nor clean. In its current iteration, the umbrella term for all actions intended to "green" coal, is little more than a name change to keep our most abundant natural resource in the game.

On his website, Schweitzer says that clean coal tactics, including coal gasification and carbon sequestration, have "great promise for reducing American dependence on foreign oil and developing Montana’s natural resources in a responsible manner." But neither gasification nor sequestration offer the slam dunk as Schweitzer claims. A report released last year by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences found that through coal-based fuel, gasification could emit twice the greenhouse gasses as oil. And so far, sequestration has been unrealistic since communities often don't want to store lethal gases under their towns.

Admittedly, Schweitzer is an engaging left-leaning pol who enjoys strong support in deep-red Montana. He became the unexpected star of the 2008 DNC convention for his diatribe against oil interests. "We simply can't drill our way to energy independence," he said. "Even if you drilled in all of John McCain's backyards, including the ones he can't even remember." Schweitzer's embrace of clean coal is understandable since Montana has lots of coal, but his support of coal makes his rant against oil seem somewhat self-interested.

And Netroots Nation hardly has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to find an opening keynote speaker. Since its inception five years ago, the Daily Kos-inspired event has attracted the country's most relevant leaders, and last year, former president Bill Clinton delivered the opening keynote, following a two-year stint by former Vermont governor and DNC chairman Howard Dean.

I'm not suggesting that everyone featured at Netroots Nation should share the same views on any topic. But clean coal is a straightforward industry scam, and leaving it to a clean coal enthusiast to set the tone raises the question of how tuned in the mainstream progressive blogosphere is to environmental issues.

Photo Credit: Center for American Progress